Note: Dedicated to Messer Moony, for all the help! XD
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
27: Two Vows
As Remus Lupin watched Deputy Head of Aurors Harry Potter hurrying across the Atrium towards him, he felt his heart sink to his shoes at the thought of the scene the two of them were no doubt about to cause.
Nevertheless, the werewolf turned resolutely back to the wizard behind the desk, drawing himself up to his full height as he cleared his throat purposefully.
"Um..." he managed again, silently cursing his sudden reluctance to speak, only to feel Harry's hand upon his arm, forcing him to turn back to look at the dark haired wizard, who seemed somewhat breathless as he announced:
"Remus! I'm so glad I caught you...are you...are you here to see Tonks? You do know she's not due in until ten, don't you?"
It took Remus a long, despairing moment of staring at Harry before he finally managed to mumble:
"Um...no. No, I'm not here for...for that..."
"Oh..." Harry's face fell somewhat before he plastered a smile onto his face and called over Remus' shoulder to the man behind the desk: "It's alright Alf, he's here to see me."
"Right you are, Harry." Alf murmured, and with that he reached to bury his nose in that morning's edition of the Daily Prophet.
"Come on then," Harry said, turning on his heel and striding off in the direction of the lift. "Let's find somewhere quiet to have a chat...I'll break into Tonks' office, we can steal her chocolate digestives, she probably won't care."
Remus hesitated for a brief moment, casting one last glance at Alf, before reluctantly setting off after the younger wizard.
"Actually, Harry..." he began as they came to a halt before the lift doors. "I um...I wasn't here for a chat with you, either."
"You weren't?"
"No...I um..."
I'm here to confess to kidnapping a child.
I'm here to be escorted to prison, where I'll be left to rot for a few months.
I'm here because Dora and I are terrible liars...
"I'm here because I need to...visit the Werewolf Registry."
Even as the lie flowed unbidden from his lips, Remus felt the sinking feeling in his chest swell until he was quite sure that it would consume him and he would find himself disappearing through the solid marble floor beneath his feet.
For the love of Merlin, what had possessed him to say that?
It was shame, he supposed as the lift doors clicked open and he and Harry both shuffled inside. Because admitting the truth to Harry was almost as bad as admitting it to Teddy.
As was Harry's assumption that Remus needed them to have "a little chat". It had used to be the other way around...the reversal was deeply embarrassing.
"Well let's have a cup of coffee or something first." Harry suggested as the lift doors closed behind them. "I'm utterly parched!"
"The thing is, Harry, I'm in a bit of a rush..." Remus decided, reaching to scratch the back of his neck self consciously. "I need to get back to..." he trailed off into silence as Harry rounded on him with such imploring eyes that he quite forgot where it was that he supposedly needed to get back to.
"Please." Harry said simply, and Remus silently cursed himself as he let out a small sigh and agreed:
"Well...alright then."
Remus was pretty sure that he had never dreaded a conversation more than this in his whole entire life. By the time they had arrived in Tonks' office and Harry had disappeared off to fetch them a cup of coffee each, the werewolf was seriously considering bursting out of the office and, whilst the Deputy Head of Aurors was out of earshot, announcing to the Auror Department at large that he had kidnapped Elijah Benson. He was just playing out the whole dramatic scene in his head, complete with Ron Weasley's exclamations of: You've got to be bloody joking, when Harry arrived back and any possibility of escape ended with the sound of the office door clicking shut behind him.
Harry strode around to the other side of the desk and took a seat in the comfy looking leather chair that Remus had purposefully avoided so that he couldn't catch sight of the family photographs that he knew Tonks kept upon her desk. Staring at the back of the frames was causing mental havoc enough as it was.
Harry set the two mugs down upon the desk, sliding one forward for Remus to take. The werewolf reached to wrap his hands around offered object, it was oddly comforting.
"We've been thinking," Harry said, leaning forward on his elbows upon the desktop. "Ginny and I, I mean, about...things."
Remus said nothing.
The Auror frowned deeply down at the steam rising from his mug before drawing a deep breath and mumbling:
"We've talked about everything and we've both decided that Ron and Hermione are right. It's just like Molly says, Tonks wouldn't do that to you."
Remus felt himself pale.
Merlin, they'd all been talking about it. Not just a few of them, all of them. He could just imagine them congregating in the Burrow's kitchen to debate whether or not his marriage was falling apart at the seams, whether or not Dora had really gone off with Carrow-Smyth, whether or not Carrow-Smyth had truly been as much of a bastard as they had first thought, whether or not Remus was going to announce in the coming days that he planned on getting a divorce...
There had probably been tea and biscuits.
And cake.
Sweet Merlin...
When again Remus failed to say a word, Harry finally stopped staring at his coffee and, leaning ever further forward across the desk, looked up to fix Remus with searching eyes.
"What I'm trying to say," the Auror said, as Remus did his very best to stare innocently back at him, "is that I don't believe either of you. None of us do."
Remus smiled thinly.
"Well, that's very...touching." he observed sadly, and Harry pursed his lips together in frustration before it seemingly overcame him and his slapped a hand down on the table and declared:
"Artemis Carrow-Smyth was a absolute bastard!"
Remus let out a strained chuckle, grip upon his mug tightening.
"Going after a married woman like that yes, I rather suppose he was."
"Not because of that!" Harry protested, only to pause to frown deeply and admit: "Well obviously that was pretty appalling of him too, but he was an obnoxious, condescending little sod and none of us liked him! Especially not Tonks, she bloody loathed the man! I don't care if they dated when they were at school! Everybody dates everybody when they are at school, teenagers aren't that picky...remember Ron and Lavender? And I bet dating him back then would've put Tonks off for eternity, let alone life! She used to make us draw straws to see who had to go down to Carrow-Smyth's office to retrieve files! And if she got the short straw she'd moan and complain about him for the rest of the day! And...and even if she did like him...she LOVES you! She loves you more than the world, she fought with you for months and months to persuade you that you should be together! You've got a son together, you're a family! Tonks would never put your relationship at risk like this! And if she truly did she wouldn't wander into work and talk to Kingsley and Ron and I as if nothing much had happened! She'd have the good grace to be ASHAMED of herself! She'd be a complete WRECK! But she isn't, is she Remus? Not even when Carrow-Smyth who you seem to think she loved so much DIED!"
Remus reached to pass a weary hand across his eyes, wondering if it was even worth lying anymore or whether he ought just give up, admit the truth...
"Where were you?"
Harry's sudden question jolted Remus away from his sluggish mental debate and he blinked.
"Where was I...?" he repeated hesitantly, and Harry reached to grip the table edge with both hands as he asked:
"Where were you when the fire broke out? Tonks said you weren't at the house, she said you'd been away all night. Where did you sleep that night? You weren't at my house, you weren't at Molly's or Ron's, the Headmistress says you didn't return to Hogwarts..."
Sweet Merlin, he'd even been talking to Minerva...
"...so where were you?"
Attempting not to look alarmed, Remus offered Harry a raised eyebrow.
"Is this a chat over coffee with a friend," he wondered aloud, "or is the Deputy Head of Aurors interrogating me?"
Harry visibly reddened and his gaze immediately dropped back to his coffee.
"Sorry..." he mumbled, reaching to take of his glasses so that he could rub his eyes with a heavy sigh. "It's just...I'm worried."
"You don't need to be worried."
"I do. You never lie to me, Remus, except for when something is seriously wrong. You...you tried to lie when you ran away all those years ago...you had me worried then, too."
"Really, you don't need to worry."
Harry sighed heavily again before reaching for his coffee. After taking a generous gulp he set the mug back down upon the desk and recalled with a chuckle:
"Ron's theory yesterday was that you murdered Carrow-Smyth and then did a runner!"
Remus sniggered into his coffee mug.
"That's an interesting theory."
"Hermione wondered if Tonks got carried away hexing him again and set the house on fire. But then Ginny pointed out that Carrow-Smyth ought not even have been at the house in the first place...Hermione said he might have decided to apologise, you know, for messing Teddy around in court."
"Sounds more plausible to me."
"Mm."
"And...what do you think?"
Harry reached to run a finger around the rim of his mug, expression grim.
"I...don't quite know what I think." he mumbled, gaze once again downcast. "But I...I think you're in trouble somehow. You and Tonks."
Remus smiled faintly. He wasn't quite sure where he wanted this conversation to lead. He could not bear the thought of admitting the truth and yet he couldn't stand to keep lying either. He was tired of it, sick of it, it almost made him long for Azkaban.
"It's alright," he decided slowly, forming a sort of half-lie in his head as a compromise. "Dora isn't in trouble..."
"But you are?" Harry said, eyes snapping back up to look at him so quickly that Remus found himself leaning back a little in his chair.
"I'm fine."
"You don't look it, you look like you've not slept for a week! Besides, I didn't ask if you were fine, I asked if you were in trouble. They aren't the same thing. You're very good at being fine when you're in trouble, aren't you Remus?"
"I'm not in trouble." Remus decided. After all he'd be in Azkaban in a few hours and there was only so much trouble that one could get into whilst sat in a small prison cell. He ignored the nerves that were twisting his stomach into knots and reached for his coffee again, attempting to ignore Harry's piercing stare.
"Your hand's trembling."
At this observation Remus snatched up the mug, narrowly avoiding dousing the front of his robes in coffee.
"Shouldn't be plying me with this much caffeine, should you?" he joked shakily, and with that he drained the mug in a few short gulps and set it back down upon Tonks' desk with a thud. "I have to go." he added abruptly, and with that he got to his feet.
Harry simply stared. When Remus was halfway to the door that he asked:
"Have you done something illegal?"
It wasn't until Remus had reached to fling the office door open wide that Harry barely heard him mutter to himself:
"You have no idea."
It took a moment for these words to sink in, but then Harry was quick to jump to his feet and dash out of the office after him.
It was alarming how fast people could move when they were running away. Once he had weaved his way through the Auror Department, dodging desks and inquires from various people, he stepped out into the corridor to spot Remus already stepping into the lift.
The Deputy Head of Aurors sprinted down the corridor, his heart instantly hammering in his chest.
"REMUS WAIT!"
The doors clicked shut mere meters in front of him and as he skidded to a halt, narrowly avoiding slamming himself bodily into the closed doors, Harry let out a shout of frustration, reaching to jab urgently at the button beside the lift.
"You alright, Harry?" a voice called from back down the corridor, and Harry glanced over his shoulder before turning his attention back to the button.
"No, Ron. No I'm not alright. Not alright at all...I...COME ON FOR MERLIN'S SAKE!"
"You keep on like that mate, you're going to break it." Ron Weasley observed as he stepped out of the doorway that led to one of the filing rooms opposite Auror Headquarters and strode down the corridor towards his best friend. "What's the rush?"
"It's...it's Remus, Ron, he's...I don't even know...we were right, there's something wrong. Seriously, seriously wrong and...and he's a wreck, he's...shaking and...and mumbling and I think he's...he's going to do something stupid..."
As he came to a halt at Harry's side, Ron frowned deeply.
"Like what?" he asked as Harry finally gave up on the button and resorted to landing a frustrated kick at the door instead.
"I don't bloody know!" the dark haired wizard snapped, as at long last they heard the dinging sound that announced the lift's arrival and the doors slowly slid open again.
"I'm pretty sure Remus hasn't done anything stupid since the 90s." Ron recalled as they stepped inside and Harry began a fresh attack upon the button that was labeled Atrium. "What makes you think he'll start now?"
"Because!" Harry cried, eyes wide in fury at his friend's lack of panic. "You haven't seen him, Ron! He's...he's even more muddled than he was that time at Grimmauld!"
"Well yeah, but..."
"He's done something illegal!"
"In which case he's already done something stupid, it's a bit late for us to...wait...what?"
"I don't know what but...but I think it's bad. Very bad!"
"I told you Carrow-Smyth was murdered."
"RON!"
"Alright, alright! I was just kidding."
"I don't think this is a good time for just kidding, do you?"
"Well...no. You're right, it's not. Still though...bloody hell!"
Harry was about to shoot Ron another unimpressed look, only it was at that precise moment that the doors clicked open and the Deputy Head of Aurors made an run for the desk that he had first spotted Remus at that morning...
Only to come skidding to a halt at the sight before him.
Remus was stood, stock still some short distance from the desk, staring over at the witch who was stood leaning back against the wall between the two vast fireplaces opposite him, his expression distinctly dismayed.
And Tonks stared back at him, arms folded firmly across her chest as she waited for him to move...
Harry didn't want to wait.
"C'mon Ron!" he hissed as Ron caught up with him, and with only the briefest nod in Remus' direction the two Aurors made a beeline for the werewolf.
They grabbed an arm each as they passed, heading straight for the fireplace at Tonks' side. Remus stumbled along, seemingly too tired to struggle or protest. They bundled him into the fireplace and Tonks stepped after them without a word, reaching for a generous handful of floo power, and with that the four of them disappeared in a burst of emerald flames.
As he deposited Remus in a chair at his kitchen table a moment later, mumbling a reminder to Ron about where Ginny kept the teabags, Harry was already feeling the sense of panic beginning to dull. He watched Tonks drop into a chair at Remus' side, reaching to cup his face in her hands as she turned him to face her, dark eyes firm.
"This is what's best for you." Harry heard her whisper with a sniff, her eyes suddenly watery. "Now take a deep breath." she instructed, one hand reached to pin her husband's hands in his lap in an attempt to halt the trembling. "Because we're going to tell Harry and Ron everything."
When Remus attempted to shake his head, his mind so sluggish and fatigued that he could think to do little else, she leant forward to press a kiss to his brow as she promised:
"We're going to fix things. You and me, Harry and Ron."
But back at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, some many hours previously in the dead of night, a similar vow had been made by a young Gryffindor who went by the name of Chester Burton:
We're going to fix things, Teddy. Me and you and Victoire.
And nobody at the school had caught a glimpse of the trio of children ever since.